JOURNALISTS AS 'ENEMY COMBATANTS' ... SO, WHAT'S THE POINT OF THE MILITARY?

The Pentagon has released a 1,1776-page 'law of war' manual that says journalists can be labeled as 'unprivileged belligerents.' This is another way of saying journalists can be named as 'enemy combatants.'

Now compare this with ISIS, which demands that journalists not only "cooperate" in the territories it controls, but that media workers send all reports for pre-approval to its media office. Media workers also have to swear allegiance to ISIS.

So, yeah, in the process of rewriting the rules of war the Pentagon is effectively giving the middle finger to the U.S. Constitution - which clearly states that the freedoms of the 'the press' cannot be abridged. Go ahead, check it out.

Look, if our most basic freedoms are up for interpretation, debate and rewrites by a growing national security state and a military-industrial complex, that seems calibrated to be in a perpetual state of war, we need to ask one simple question: Just what is our military supposed to be protecting?

- Mark

NOTE: The story of former CBS investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson is instructive here. She filed a $35 million lawsuit against the Obama administration's Justice Department, claiming that she was spied on for her reports of the Obama administration's Fast and Furious program. This suggests being targeted by the government can also happen when critical reporting goes beyond the battlefields of war.